Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of ocular surgery, and more specifically to controlling a phacoemulsification surgical instrument system during ophthalmic procedures.
Description of the Related Art
Today's ocular surgery, such as phacoemulsification surgery, can involve medical instrument systems that provide for handpiece operation in a traditional longitudinal ‘cutting’ mode. Longitudinal cutting occurs by controlling movement of the phaco tip forward and backward along a single axis. Longitudinal cutting represents the foundation for many handpiece modes. Newer technology affords surgeons the choice of torsional or transversal cutting actions in the form of handpiece operational modes, in addition to traditional longitudinal tip action.
Traditional longitudinal cutting operation is effective at boring into the cataract, but can present issues with removing lenticular matter as the particle tends to be repelled from the tip. Torsional and transversal methods can offer improved surgical performance under certain conditions, but it is difficult for the tip found in torsional and transversal designs to bore into the particle. The inability of the tip to effectively cut the particle limits these designs when compared to traditional designs, thus potentially reducing the surgeon's overall cutting efficiency.
Today's state of instrument system design provides for switching between torsional and traditional, transversal and traditional, only transversal, only torsional, and only traditional (longitudinal) operation. During surgery, surgeons currently choose between handpiece operation modes to improve the efficacy of the surgical procedure, including reducing the amount of heat introduced into the patient's eye. Multiple mode operation available in today's instrument designs increases the medical instrument's operational flexibility while conducting the surgical procedure and helps surgeons perform the most effective, efficient and safest possible surgery. Combining cutting technologies can make phacoemulsification safer and maximizes surgical benefit by avoiding complications such as chatter while improving procedure efficiency, minimizing the incision size, and reducing the amount of heat introduced into the patient's eye. Currently, switching between modes, such as between longitudinal, torsional, and transversal modes simply entails the surgeon selecting a combination of modes prior to the surgical procedure.
Certain available instrument system designs having torsional or transversal technology operate using a uniform ratio of longitudinal tip displacement in relation to transversal or torsional tip displacement. Designs that afford interleaving of longitudinal and transversal tip displacement, where depressing the footpedal device causes the instrument to switch back and forth between the two cutting modes, do not allow the surgeon to vary or change the amount of time that a mode remains in effect regardless of amount of footpedal depression nor elapsed time footpedal is depressed. In short, the options for using modes are limited to switching between modes using the user interface or a switch such as the footpedal, and are therefore limited.
Based on the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide for a system and method that enables a surgeon to quickly and accurately vary the surgical instrument transversal tip motions for use in controlling medical instrument systems that overcomes the foregoing drawbacks present in previously known designs.